Talk:Nova/@comment-25065826-20150822092556/@comment-25266794-20150823173023
I wake up. My head hurts. I have no idea why. I hear voices and start wanting to scream. I barely understand scraps of phrases that are being said. “-haven't found our ally-” “Wouldn't he have been able to predict this?” “-probably dead... couldn't have survived the child.” “-never find either of them tonight-.” So it's nighttime. I wouldn't be able to tell. I'm still confused and I can't feel my body. I try to open my eyes. One of them must be swollen. The other opens. Maybe a bit. I think. It's still dark. “Maureen,” a girl says, maybe a few minutes later. I can't hear the other voices anymore. I think I'm drifting in and out of consciousness. I don't recognize her voice. Maybe that's because I've been hit in the head or whatever happened. I don't know. She shakes me and I gasp. “Maureen, it's me.” I try to ask who she is, but I don't think it sounds quite like that. Hopefully I at least manage to sound out the “wh-”. “It's Claudia. You really did get hit, didn't you?” I think she tries to lift me up. I doubt it works. She sighs and I think the ground starts moving underneath me. Or maybe that's just my head. I'm vaguely aware of her swearing at something for being loud. I'm not sure if I'm dreaming for the next few hours. Something is sometimes moving and sometimes I can hear Elliot screaming. I think. Or maybe it's Rex. Or me. Claudia sighs. “Blaming yourself again?” I try to ask about the “again”. That's easier to think about than the “blaming yourself”. I have no idea what I did. She must have gotten the message, because she says, “Wow. How hard were you hit? Wait. You wouldn't know, would you?” I try to open one eye to stare at her, the tiny bit I can get it open. “Amnesia, remember?” she continues. I silently laugh at the irony of that question before actually thinking about it. Or at least, until I pass out again. I come to again on the ground. I don't know how long I've been here. The last thing I remember before Claudia is sitting on a train. And looking through the window. I saw a cat who looked like Rex. “Rex,” I try to say. Claudia must be beside me because I hear her laugh. “Only you would ask about your cat after getting a freaking concussion and having no clue who the person with you is or what happened to your friends.” Well, I guess she knows me after all then. I drift back out of consciousness, I guess. I have a dream, or maybe it's a memory. Elliot's standing still. “Maureen!” she whispers. I smile, ready to call out. I don't even know to whom. She puts her finger to her mouth. “Maureen, the government knows I'm dangerous. Too dangerous. They lied to you. You were sent to find me. The others were sent to kill me. But you have to understand that they know best. You have to work with them, Maureen. Trust them to do what's best for the human race. Where are they?” I think dream-Maureen is crying. She shakes her head. Someone screams, Elliot, I'd imagine, and I wake up. I open my eyes. Well, I try to. One of them still won't budge and the other one barely opens. I don't know where Claudia is. I'm lying on the dirt. It feels weird, almost squishy. I try to move something. My legs refuse. My right hand starts patting my stomach. I think it's my stomach, anyway. I can't really feel it. But it's sort of warm. I try to look down to see it. Something hurts. Claudia jolts near me and groans. “What are you doing?” she asks me. I'm still mostly incoherent. “That's my face,” she tells me. “And I was asleep.” I stop moving my arm and she lifts it off of her. “I think I can move us again now,” she says. I barely register it. The ground starts moving again. Maybe it's not just my head. It's just what we're laying on moving over or through the dirt, I think. Huh. Maybe that's what was squishy. I remember my dream again. “E-ih,” I say, aiming for “Elliot”. Claudia just looks at me strangely as I fall back into unconsciousness.